Fall 2007

LAS 310 • 2-LAT AM CIV: NATL EXPERIENCE

Course Description

This course will survey Latin American history from the independence era of the 1810s/20s to the present. There will be a particular focus on Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. Themes to be considered include nation building, revolutions, populism, race and class, the mass media, democratization, and relations with Europe and the United States. The course will consist of two lectures per week, regular assigned readings, and a weekly seminar in which the readings will be discussed and occasional film & documentary clips shown.

Texts

Required Readings: John Charles Chasteen, Born in Blood & Fire (Norton, 2006) John Charles Chasteen & James A. Wood, Problems in Latin American History (SR Books, 2005) Sandra Lauderdale Graham, House and Street: The Domestic World of Servants and Masters in Nineteenth-Century Rio de Janeiro (Texas, 1992 [1988]) William J. Beezley, Judas at the Jockey Club, and Other Episodes of Porfirian Mexico (Bison Books, 2004) Salman Rushdie, The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey (Picador, 2003 [1987]) Further excerpts may be assigned as handouts.

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